Once the modification was made, the drive locked to the track with just a little help. We added the tensioner (shown in red) to give it the start it needs. This combination caused the transmission to rotate when the car was pushed - a good sign! In fact, it shows all signs of working, and could work by wednesday night (2/6) if the motor arrives - and works. I'll run it on a straight piece of track bolted at both ends, for starters, with an extension cord dangling behind for power.

Byron will be gone for the next two weeks, so I have to go it alone. I'll have some help from Frank Starnes in building the test body on the frame, if the car is ready for it.

We have a shipment of footers from the plasma cutters coming later in the week, so we may start fabricating track soon. As sonn as we have a workable motor, I can finish wiring all the control bords - a full day of work. I have enough to keep me busy until I get my machineist back.

The heavy gussets render the mount platform very strong and rigid. The welds on the cam follower arms may fail, as they are one-sided (as opposed to drilling a hole through the plate and welding the arm on both surfaces of the plate.) The main pivot may fail due to its too-small diameter. We'll see what happens under a load condition - with 4 heavy adults slamming around turns, it could fail anywhere. And that's good, because we need to see where bracing is needed most. We can break all we want, because we can make more. Until we run out of budget, that is.

Note the white plastic hot rail mount/insulator. This plastic - similar to Teflon in slickness, and strong enough to drill and thread tap to hold hardware - will support the hot rail as shown. This solves both a material and electrical insulation problem with one choice. The plastic is readily machined and easy to work. It also does not wear out cutting tools quickly.

We'll be looking for wear, naturally, to see how often the brass lug of the pickup will need to be changed. We're approaching the most intense phase of prototyping, and it's going to be as much fun as it will be work.